Some fans might be surprised to hear that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets featured a post-credits scene, a rarity in the Harry Potter film series. The 2002 movie, directed by Chris Columbus, served as the second installment in the movie adaptations based on the books by J.K. Rowling. Here's what happened in the credits scene and why it holds so much significance.
Despite Dobby the House Elf's precautions, Harry returned to Hogwarts for his second year. The school had found out the heir of Salazar Slytherin opened the Chamber of Secrets, which unleashed a creature capable of petrifying anyone who came in contact with it, and celebrity Gilderoy Lockhart had subsequently been hired as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. As Harry and his friends tried to investigate the identity of the heir, he wound up on a rescue mission to save Ginny. There he learned that not only was Tom Riddle the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets, but also that the former Hogwarts student ultimately became Lord Voldemort.
Professor Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh) was one of the characters introduced in Chamber of Secrets, and was the focus of the film's final scene. Before he was hired by Hogwarts (and fell victim to the D.A.D.A. professor curse), Lockhart was a famous author who shared stories about his encounters with Dark creatures. In reality, Lockhart never had those experiences and instead had stolen them from people using the Memory Charm. After the truth came out in Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart's career as an author didn't end - as revealed in the post-credits scene.
Lockhart ending up losing all of his own memories when his attempted Memory Charm backfired while using Ron Weasley's broken wand. He then ended up in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries for permanent spell damage. The credits scene, however, revealed that the former celeb wrote another book, Who Am I? - presumably his last. An advertisement for Who Am I? could be seen in the window of Flourish & Blotts, with a picture of Gilderoy in a straitjacket. The scene didn't reveal Lockhart's final fate, but it was highly significant since it remains as the only legitimate credits scene in Harry Potter franchise history.
Not one succeeding Harry Potter movie installment included a live-action credits scene. Even the first two Fantastic Beasts installments have withheld from using credits sequences. Though the use of credits scenes have been around for decades, many moviegoers would credit the MCU for starting the popular trend, especially with big franchises. The Harry Potter series must have felt that the movies teased their upcoming sequels well enough to forgo an extra scene, and the Chamber of Secret's post-credits scene served more like a clever revelation rather than a tease about what was to come.
